Who can be Right with God?

Luke Chapter 18: 9-14

The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector

What is a Parable?-

Parables were short stories and lessons used by Jesus in order to teach. A common description of a parable is that it is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. Jesus explained that His use of parables had a two-fold purpose: to reveal the truth to those who wanted to know it and to conceal the truth from those who were indifferent. I pray that the Spirit of God open up your hearts to hear these truths and I pray that you respond to them.

Let's open the Word of God to the 18th chapter of Luke's gospel, Luke chapter 18, and we are looking at a beloved and familiar parable which our Lord taught, the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector.  I want to read it to you and then we'll consider again the marvelous significance of this parable.  Luke chapter 18 verses 9 through 14.  Here's what the Word of God says:

Reading of the Verses-

"And He also told this parable to certain ones who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and viewed others with contempt.  ‘Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.  The Pharisee stood and was praying thus to himself, “God, I thank Thee that I am not like other people, swindlers, unjust, adulterers or even like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week.  I pay tithes of all that I get.”  But the tax collector, standing some distance away was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven but was beating his breast saying, “God, be merciful to me, the sinner.”  I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other, for everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, but he who humbles himself shall be exalted.’"

Initial Explanation-

This was certainly a jolting, stunning idea conveyed by the Lord Jesus in this story.  When He came to the punch line and said the tax collector went down to his house justified and not the Pharisee, He put Himself 180 degrees away from the prevailing Jewish idea of salvation, and for that matter, the idea of salvation shown of all world religion.  Jesus was saying, "It is not the man who is good who is justified, but the man who knows he is wicked that is justified."

The dominant religious idea in Judaism at the time of our Lord, the dominant religious idea in the world always, then and now, is the idea that good people go to heaven, that if you are moral and religious you can achieve salvation, escape from divine judgment, become acceptable to God.  It's a matter of how good you are, how moral you are and how spiritual or religious you are.  This is frankly the big lie that dominates the world, that people can earn heaven by being good enough. 

You remember I told you last time our first point was the comprehensive audience.  Look at verse 9, "He told this parable to certain ones who trusted in themselves that they were righteous." This is for everybody who thinks that you get to heaven by being good enough, who trust in themselves, says our Lord — or says Luke as he records this text — who believe that they can achieve a relationship with God through their morality and their spirituality and their religiosity.

Reason for the Parable-

Look at verse 9, "He told this parable to certain ones who trusted in themselves that they were righteous." This is for everybody who thinks that you get to heaven by being good enough, who trust in themselves, says our Lord who believe that they can achieve a relationship with God through their morality and their spirituality and their religiosity.

Now we know that leading the parade of self-righteous people, people who think they can be good enough to enter heaven was the Pharisees, this group of Jews who were fastidious law-keepers, because back in chapter 16 and verse 15, Jesus said to the Pharisees, "You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men.  You are those who make yourselves righteous in the sight of men but God knows your hearts."  They led the parade of those who lived with the illusion that you can earn salvation, that you can be good enough for God to accept you.  This parable is told for the benefit of anybody who thinks that way.  There are only two possibilities in the world. Either you can be good enough to achieve a right relationship with God or you cannot.  Either you can earn salvation by morality and religion or you cannot.  That's all there is, really, to discuss.  Whatever the religious label is, it is either a conviction that you can or you cannot.  The true religion, the religion of Scripture, the true way of salvation says you cannot by your own effort, your own self-righteousness, your own morality, or your own religiosity, or spirituality please God in any way, therefore earn acceptance with Him.  Every other religious system in the world is a system of human achievement to one degree or another that assumes that you can do something to achieve a right relationship with God.

Pharisees:

EXPLAIN WHAT A PHARISEE IS?: In this story, you have the Pharisee, who is the epitome of achievers in morality and religion.  He is the most fastidious careful law-keeper on the planet, and he's associated with the Old Testament law and so he's very close to the revelation of God. 

And so, he's as good as it gets, but not good enough.  The self-confessed sinner, on the other hand, is as bad as it gets, the most despised of all outcasts, and yet he is the one of whom Jesus said, "He went down justified,” or just, or right, or righteous with God, acceptable and approved by God. It would be an attack on the holiness of God, in their view, to say that the worst of sinners is justified and the best of righteous men is not. 

And so, he's as good as it gets, but not good enough.  The self-confessed sinner, on the other hand, is as bad as it gets, the most despised of all outcasts, and yet he is the one of whom Jesus said, "He went down justified,” or just, or right, or righteous with God, acceptable and approved by God. That idea to religious people in the religions of human achievement, that idea to a Jew in the Judaism of that day and particularly that idea to a Pharisee would constitute a kind of outrage.  It would be an attack on the holiness of God, in their view, to say that the worst of sinners is justified and the best of righteous men is not. 

And so, he's as good as it gets, but not good enough.  The self-confessed sinner, on the other hand, is as bad as it gets, the most despised of all outcasts, and yet he is the one of whom Jesus said, "He went down justified,” or just, or right, or righteous with God, acceptable and approved by God. That idea to religious people in the religions of human achievement, that idea to a Jew in the Judaism of that day and particularly that idea to a Pharisee would constitute a kind of outrage.  It would be an attack on the holiness of God, in their view, to say that the worst of sinners is justified and the best of righteous men is not. 

And so, he's as good as it gets, but not good enough.  The self-confessed sinner, on the other hand, is as bad as it gets, the most despised of all outcasts, and yet he is the one of whom Jesus said, "He went down justified,” or just, or right, or righteous with God, acceptable and approved by God. That idea to religious people in the religions of human achievement, that idea to a Jew in the Judaism of that day and particularly that idea to a Pharisee would constitute a kind of outrage.  It would be an attack on the holiness of God, in their view, to say that the worst of sinners is justified and the best of righteous men is not. 

The Pharisees were self-righteousness and smug in their delusion that they were pleasing to God because they kept the Law—or parts of it, at least. As Jesus pointed out to them, however scrupulous they were in following the finer points of ritualism, they failed to measure up to God’s standard of holiness

The Pharisees were self-righteousness and smug in their delusion that they were pleasing to God because they kept the Law—or parts of it, at least. As Jesus pointed out to them, however scrupulous they were in following the finer points of ritualism, they failed to measure up to God’s standard of holiness

So there is a question that could be brought up, who gets into the kingdom of God and how do they get in?  Who is qualified?  Who is acceptable to God in the kingdom?  Jesus answers that question here and He answers it.

If you just take the word "justified" for a moment, it means to be held as righteous, right.  It means to be declared guiltless, forgiven, acquitted, cleared of all charges.  And that is necessary for someone to enter into God's kingdom.  You have to be acquitted, you have to be forgiven, you have to be cleared, you have to be declared not guilty.  And human religion says you can achieve it on your own, and Scripture says you absolutely cannot.  The issue is simple then. Again I say either you can or you can't, and if you think you can, whatever the religious label you wear, you're on the wrong side of reality.

If you just take the word "justified" for a moment, it means to be held as righteous, right.  It means to be declared guiltless, forgiven, acquitted, cleared of all charges.  And that is necessary for someone to enter into God's kingdom.  You have to be acquitted, you have to be forgiven, you have to be cleared, you have to be declared not guilty.  And human religion says you can achieve it on your own, and Scripture says you absolutely cannot.  The issue is simple then.

The whole issue starts with an understanding of what God's requirement is.  And if you go back to the book of Leviticus, you hear Him say, "Be holy for I am holy.  Be holy for I am holy.  Be holy for I, the Lord your God, am holy." And He establishes a standard of absolute holiness.  No one can meet that standard.  Jesus reiterates it in the New Testament, , "Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect."  God's requirement is perfection.  And though the Pharisees were as good as it gets, as good as you can possibly be,  Jesus also said to them in , "Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven."  To understand that is to understand the bottom line.  You have to be as good as God, you have to be as holy as God, you have to be as righteous as God.  And either you can achieve that, or you can't.  Scripture's clear that you can't, that you can't.  says, "By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified."  You can't do it by keeping God's law.  says that, simply this, "Anyone who tries to come to God by keeping the law will be cursed because you can't do it."  And says, "If you offend in one point, you're guilty of violating all of it."  So there's no way to God by morality, law-keeping, and religious effort. 

Verse 10

"Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector"

verse 10 "Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax gatherer."

They couldn't be more different.  They are polar opposites.  The Pharisee is the most religious, the most respectable, the most honored, revered man.  And the tax collector is the most hated, the most despised, the one who would be treated with the utmost contempt.  One, the Pharisee, is a self-confessed righteous man.   The other, the tax collector, is a self-confessed unrighteous man.

So, at nine in the morning or at three in the afternoon, usually the afternoon...one was more well attended than the morning one, I understand.   At one of these such morning or evening sacrifices, the crowd ascends into the temple and in the crowd there are these two men.  One of them is a Pharisee. The other is a tax collector.  They go up there to pray and “pray” is simply a synonym for “worship.”  They go up there to express their adoration and worship of God.  They go up there because they know there's going to be a sacrifice offered and they want that sacrifice to apply to them.  They want the benefits of that atonement to fall upon them.  They also want to go up there so that they can join with the symbolic incense and having experienced the sacrifice, the incense comes afterward.  That is to say once sin is atoned for then prayer can be offered to God. They go to pray, to receive the blessing to participate in the ceremony.

They couldn't be more different.  They are polar opposites.  The Pharisee is the most religious, the most respectable, the most honored, revered man.  And the tax collector is the most hated, the most despised, the one who would be treated with the utmost contempt.  One, the Pharisee, is a self-confessed righteous man.   The other, the tax collector, is a self-confessed unrighteous man.

Verse 11

“The Pharisee stood”. He stood. That is a legitimate posture for prayer. Even Jesus talked about , when you stand to pray, pray this way.  It was legitimate to stand and pray and the typical posture to do this was to stand with your eyes uplifted to heaven and your hands uplifted as well.  It's sort of like the prayer that the apostle Paul instructs the church through Timothy, that holy men are to pray with uplifted hands.  This is a typical posture.  You are open-faced before God because you have a right relationship to God.  You come into His presence with arms uplifted, ready to receive that which God provides for you, as well as to offer up your praise.  And the Pharisee took a posture then that was a legitimate one.  But in particular, they would take this posture probably in a very, very visible place, apart from the people because they didn't dare touch a common person. So it would be at a distance but in full view. Jesus, remember, condemned them in the Sermon on the Mount in because they loved to take the place of prayer in public view and stand where everyone could see them.  And that's what he did.  He stood there in good visibility for all the crowd to be able to see what a holy man looked like.

Verse 11, The Pharisee stood. He stood. That is a legitimate posture for prayer. Even Jesus talked about , when you stand to pray, pray this way.  It was legitimate to stand and pray and the typical posture to do this was to stand with your eyes uplifted to heaven and your hands uplifted as well.  It's sort of like the prayer that the apostle Paul instructs the church through Timothy, that holy men are to pray with uplifted hands.  This is a typical posture.  You are open-faced before God because you have a right relationship to God.  You come into His presence with arms uplifted, ready to receive that which God provides for you, as well as to offer up your praise.  And the Pharisee took a posture then that was a legitimate one.  But in particular, they would take this posture probably in a very, very visible place, apart from the people because they didn't dare touch a common person. So it would be at a distance but in full view. Jesus, remember, condemned them in the Sermon on the Mount in because they loved to take the place of prayer in public view and stand where everyone could see them.  And that's what he did.  He stood there in good visibility for all the crowd to be able to see what a holy man looked like.

And then it says he was praying thus to himself.  "The Pharisee stood and was thus praying to himself."  He is parading himself.  This is no prayer to God. He gives God no praise.  He asks nothing from God, no mercy, no grace, no forgiveness, no help.  But he does refer to God.  "God," "I thank you that I'm not like other people."  Wow.  Well what's there to thank God for?  You've done this on your own.  This is sheer hypocrisy.  This is an unequivocal confession to God of his worthiness, of his righteousness.  Thanking God for what you are on your own?  This is where self-righteousness leads you.  I'm good enough.  God, I thank You that I'm good enough.

He offers himself congratulations for his moral and religious achievement.  And five times in two verses refers to himself: I, I, I, I, I, and pretty clear who he worshiped.  He invokes the name of God because that's the respectable and expected thing to do, although he asks God for absolutely nothing because in his view there's really not anything that he can think of that he needs. 

And then he says, he says, "Or even like this tax collector." Tax collectors were the most despised and despicable people in the culture.  They had purchased tax franchises from the occupying Roman people. They then paid the Romans what the Romans wanted from them each year.  And anything they could make over that, they kept, and so they extorted money out of people any way they could with thugs and strong armed petty criminals.  They were surrounded therefore by society’s sinners and prostitutes.  They couldn't go to a synagogue. They were the most hated and despised of people in the society.  And so he says, "I'm not anything like that bottom rung of society. 

And so, the Pharisee is introduced to us as the confessed self-righteous man.

But in the eyes of God, as we remember from chapter 16 verse 15, he wasn't getting away with anything because God knew his heart.  Amos confronted this back in the prophecy of 'll just read it to you in chapter 4. The words of God come with dripping sarcasm.  In fact, in...in the promise of God it says in verse 2, "The Lord God has sworn by His holiness.  Behold, the days are coming upon you when they will take you away with meat hooks and the last of you with fish hooks."  He's talking about Israel being taken into captivity.  This is the horrible, final judgment on an impenitent, idolatrous, ungodly Israel.

And then in response to that, here comes the sarcasm.  "’So enter Bethel and transgress and Gilgal multiply transgressions. Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days.  Offer a thank offering also from that which is leavened and proclaim free-will offerings.  Make them known for so you love to do, you sons of Israel,’ declares the Lord God."  All sarcasm.  Just keep coming with your sacrifices and keep coming with your offerings and keep bringing your tithes and your free-will gifts.  You love to do that.  Just keep it up until you're going to be dragged away in judgment and captivity.  Sarcasm from God for this kind of self-righteous religion.  And so, the Pharisee is introduced to us as the confessed self-righteous man.

Now the story changes and we get to the serious realities that our Lord wants us to understand in verse 13 when we meet the second character in the story.  "But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast saying, 'God, be merciful to me, the sinner.'" Here is a very different approach, very different.

They were the most hated people in Israel, cut out of all religious activity and social relationships because of what they had done as traitors to their religion and their nation.  They are the most defiled.  They are, in the eyes of the people, the farthest from God.  And it isn't just the profession that bothers people. It's how they carry it off.  They were corrupt.  They were swindlers.  They were unjust, unrighteous and they were surrounded the adulterers and prostitutes of society.  And so this is the worst sinner Jesus can portray in this brief story, as He has already used the Pharisee to present the most righteous man He could portray.

But secondly, it's revealed also in his posture.  Please notice, he was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven.  Contrary to the Pharisee, who was happy to stand with arms up, open-faced looking to God, assuming and manifesting that he would certainly be acceptable to God and could look eyeball to eyeball with God, this man will not even lift up his eyes to heaven, meaning toward God.  He is overwhelmed with guilt.  He is overwhelmed with shame and it shows up in his posture.  He knows he is unworthy.  He is a swindler.  He is unjust, dishonest, a cheat, corrupt, immoral, irreligious, he is a law breaker. He knows it, he feels it, he believes it, and he confesses it.  And there's not even a hint of the attitude that might say, "Well, I know I'm a sinner, but at least I'm here at the temple so I'm better than most tax collectors I know."  He feels the full weight of his alienation from God.  It's not just about being alienated from the society because of his profession, it's about being alienated from God because of his sin and disobedience and lawlessness.  He has that sense of alienation.  He feels that weight of sin and brokenness, that accompanying conviction and remorse.  He experiences pain and fear and dread of deserved punishment and judgment.  His location says it and so does his posture.

Tax Collector:

-Tax Collector:

LOCATION/WHAT IS A TAX COLLECTOR?: Now let's look at this tax collector.  First of all, his location, verse 13, "standing some distance away," He is way off on the fringe, on the outer edge in contrast to the Pharisee who was out in full view.  Why?  Because he knows he doesn't deserve to be in the presence of God or even the presence of those who are righteous.  He is rejected.  He is a traitor.  But more than that, he is a sinner.  He is a pariah not only to the society, but he is a pariah to God. 

He is a pariah in his own mind and his own heart.  He has no right to draw near to God and he knows that.  This is humility.  But secondly, it's revealed also in his posture.  Please notice, he was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven.  Contrary to the Pharisee, who was happy to stand with arms up, open-faced looking to God, assuming and manifesting that he would certainly be acceptable to God and could look eyeball to eyeball with God, this man will not even lift up his eyes to heaven, meaning toward God. 

He is overwhelmed with guilt.  He is overwhelmed with shame and it shows up in his posture.  He knows he is unworthy.  He is a swindler.  He is unjust, dishonest, a cheat, corrupt, immoral, irreligious, he is a law breaker. He knows it, he feels it, he believes it, and he confesses it.  And there's not even a hint of the attitude that might say, "Well, I know I'm a sinner, but at least I'm here at the temple so I'm better than most tax collectors I know."  He feels the full weight of his alienation from God.  It's not just about being alienated from the society because of his profession, it's about being alienated from God because of his sin and disobedience and lawlessness.  He has that sense of alienation.  He feels that weight of sin and brokenness, that accompanying conviction and remorse.  He experiences pain and fear and dread of deserved punishment and judgment.  His location says it and so does his posture.

So does his behavior.  His behavior is frankly quite unique.  It says he was beating his breast, or beating his chest.  A study of Jewish history, a study of Jewish social life, a study of the way Jews behaved themselves in ancient times, as well as even up to modern times in the Middle East, will tell you that one of the ways that people prayed was to put their hands over their chest and put their eyes down.  This historically, according to Edersheim, the great scholar of New Testament times, was a posture of humility, crossing the hands, bowing the eyes.  But this man goes beyond that.  His hands on his chest, his eyes down, he begins to turn his hands into fists and pound his chest rapidly and repeatedly.  This is a gesture that is used to express the most extreme sorrow, the most extreme anguish.  There's only one other place in the New Testament where it happens.  23rd chapter of Luke, It is at the cross of Christ just after Jesus died.

And verse 48, "All the multitudes who came together for this spectacle,” the crucifixion of Christ, “when they observed what had happened, began to return, beating their breasts,” pounding repeatedly and rapidly their chests.  There has never been a more horrific event than the cross.  There therefore could never be a place where there would be more profound anguish than at the cross and there men and women who were there to see that reacted in this dramatic way.

So here is a man doing a gesture that demonstrates extreme anguish.  And why his chest?  Why not pound somewhere else on the body?  An old Jewish commentary says, and I quote, "Why do the righteous beat on their heart as though to say all is there?  The righteous beat their heart because the heart is the source of all evil longing."

So here is a man doing a gesture that demonstrates extreme anguish.  And why his chest?  Why not pound somewhere else on the body?  An old Jewish commentary says, and I quote, "Why do the righteous beat on their heart as though to say all is there?  The righteous beat their heart because the heart is the source of all evil longing."

This is a recognition of what our Lord taught, that it's out of the heart that all evil comes.  Let me read you and 20, "Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. These are the things which defile the man."  He understands. This is a man who understands his own sinfulness. His location demonstrates it, his posture demonstrates it. His behavior demonstrates it.  He knows what's in his heart.  He knows that what Jeremiah said is true, that the heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.  He is anguished over his guilt.  He is broken over his shame, his unworthiness.  He is crushed and humbled.  And it comes out in everything about him and even in his words.  He says, "God," "Be merciful to me, the sinner." 

You say, "You mean he really did believe in God's forgiveness?"  Sure.  A Pharisee didn't believe that he never committed any sin ever in his entire life.  He just believed that he had earned the right to be forgiven.  When I was meeting with some of the leaders of the Mormon church, we were having a conversation, one of the stunning statements they made to me and they wanted to affirm it again and again, is we believe salvation is all of grace, all of grace.  And I said, "Okay, well then if I want to be sure to go to heaven, what do I need to do?"  And they said, "Well first of all you have to be baptized in this Mormon ritual, and then you have to join the Mormon church, and then you would have to adhere to..." and they started down this list.

I said, "Wait a minute.  It doesn't sound like grace. That sounds like works."  And as I pressed the issue, it came around to this: Isn't God gracious that He allows us to earn our salvation?  That's how it kind of worked out.  God didn't have to do that, it's all of grace.  Now the Pharisee just thought he had earned forgiveness.  He thought for sure his sins were covered by the atoning sacrifices.  For sure he was going to receive the full forgiveness of God; he was a part of the kingdom of God.  So he believed in the true God, he believed in the Scripture, he believed in the sacrifice, the atonement that God was gracious to him and God was kind to him and God would forgive him because he earned it.  That's the way religious people think.  It isn't that the world is full of people who don't think they've ever done anything wrong. It's just that they think they have not done as much wrong as they have done right.  And so they've tipped the scales in their favor and God is going to forgive the stuff that they've done because they've earned it.

So what is the difference then between these two?  The difference is as simple as this, repentance.  Faith is a given. Faith is a given.  And, ladies and gentlemen, I telling you, this is the heart and soul of where gospel ministry has to go.  You find a lot of people who believe things that are biblical, believe in the Jesus of the New Testament, believe in the New Testament to one degree or another, believe in the cross, believe in the resurrection.  The element of faith so often in the Bible, so often in the gospels, the element of faith is sort of a given, that they believe in God and the God who is revealed in Scripture, etc., etc.  The issue comes down to whether or not they will repent of sin in a true and genuine act of penitence.

The defining distinction here is that the first man has nothing for which to what?  Repent.  He's like the rich young ruler. He says, "I've kept everything since my youth.  I can't find anything I need to confess or repent of."  That is the issue.  There is no possibility of salvation apart from this kind of repentance because this is the defining element.

Now notice what he says.  "Be merciful to me." 

What is he saying?  He's saying this, "God, please apply the atonement to me."    He understood the wages of sin is death, the soul that sins it shall die.  He understood all the way back to the wonderful story of Abraham and Isaac that God would provide a sacrifice that would satisfy Himself and would satisfy His justice, a substitute.  He understood that the millions of animals that had been offered throughout all of Jewish history were symbolic of the fact that God could be appeased by a sacrifice, though none of those sacrifices ever gave the final appeasement to God. Otherwise they would have ceased.  We can only pay the price of sin on our own by being punished and placed in hell for all eternity. But God’s Son, Jesus Christ, came to earth to pay for the price of our sins. Because He did this for us, we now have the opportunity to not only have our sins forgiven, but to spend eternity with Him. In order to do this we must place our faith in what Christ did on the cross. We cannot save ourselves; we need a substitute to take our place. The death of Jesus Christ is the substitutionary atonement. He is saying, "I am a wretched sinner.  I am unworthy to stand near you.  I am unworthy to look up toward you.  I am in profound agony and anguish over my wretchedness.  I need an atonement for my sins to be applied to me."  That's what he's saying.  This is about sin and atonement.

That's not what he's saying.  He is saying, "I am a wretched sinner.  I am unworthy to stand near you.  I am unworthy to look up toward you.  I am in profound agony and anguish over my wretchedness.  I need an atonement for my sins to be applied to me."  That's what he's saying.  This is about sin and atonement.

 He is saying, "I am a wretched sinner.  I am unworthy to stand near you.  I am unworthy to look up toward you.  I am in profound agony and anguish over my wretchedness.  I need an atonement for my sins to be applied to me."  That's what he's saying.  This is about sin and atonement.

 Jesus, God in human flesh, the holy one, the perfect sinless one says that in one moment an extreme sinner can be pronounced instantly righteous without any works, without any merit, without any worthiness, without any law-keeping, without any moral achievement, religious achievement, spiritual accomplishment or ritual.  No time lapse, no penance, no works, no ceremony, no sacrament, no meritorious activity whatsoever, nothing to do, instant declaration of justification on the spot, permanent.  Wow!  How can that be?  Because the only righteousness that God will accept is perfect righteousness and since you can't earn it, He gives it as a gift to the penitent who put their trust in Him.  That's the gospel.  All the sinner ever does is receive the gift, coming in penitent trust, pleading for atonement to be made to satisfy the wrath of God against his sin.

One historian says this, "One can almost smell the pungent incense, hear the loud clash of ceremonial cymbals, see the great cloud of dense smoke rising from the burnt offering.  And the tax collector is there, stands afar off, anxious not to be seen, sensing his unworthiness to stand with the participants.  In brokenness he longs to be a part of it all.  He yearns that he might stand with the righteous.  In deep remorse he pounds his chest and cries out with repentance and hope, 'Oh God, let it be for me.  Make an atonement for me, a sinner.'"  There in the temple, this humble man aware of his own sin and unworthiness, with no merit of his own to commend him, longs that the great dramatic atonement sacrifice might be applied to him.”

Now you might think that these two people weren't that far apart, theologically.  They both believed in the same God, the same authoritative document, the Old Testament, the same Judaistic religion.  They both understood the sacrificial system.  They both believed in atonement.  There's just one fine difference and it's what divides everybody on the planet.  It is that one of them thought he could please God on his own, the other one knew he couldn't.  That's what separates everybody, absolutely everybody.

The Pharisee's attitude would have been, "Take that guy and throw him out the eastern gate with the rest of the riff-raff and the unclean who don't belong on the temple mount."  But the Pharisees didn't know the heart of God at all because Jesus said this in verse 14...and we move from the comprehensive audience and the contrasting analogy to the confounding answer, stunning.  "I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other."  Dedikaiōmenus, justified, perfect passive participle, having been justified, done with permanent results, permanently right with God, stunning, absolutely shattering their theological sensibilities.  Are you kidding?  That's why Jesus says, "I tell you."  Why does He say that?  Why begin like that?  Because He knows He couldn't get this anywhere else in Judaism.  He can't quote a rabbi. He speaks with absolute authority, "I tell you."  Here is sound soteriology from incarnate God.  "I tell you, this man went down to his house..." That's not what the rabbis tell you, that's not what the scribes tell you, that's not what you have heard.  "I tell you, this man went down to his house having been made just,” having been made righteous, having been made acceptable.  And speaks of a completed condition, the verb form, a state of having been declared righteous and that's permanent.

This would draw gasps from the legalists.  Think of it, Jesus, God in human flesh, the holy one, the perfect sinless one says that in one moment an extreme sinner can be pronounced instantly righteous without any works, without any merit, without any worthiness, without any law-keeping, without any moral achievement, religious achievement, spiritual accomplishment or ritual.  No time lapse, no penance, no works, no ceremony, no sacrament, no meritorious activity whatsoever, nothing to do, instant declaration of justification on the spot, permanent.  Wow!  How can that be?  Because the only righteousness that God will accept is perfect righteousness and since you can't earn it, He gives it as a gift to the penitent who put their trust in Him.  That's the gospel.  All the sinner ever does is receive the gift, coming in penitent trust, pleading for atonement to be made to satisfy the wrath of God against his sin.

Here is the broken-hearted, self-confessed sinner, humble, unworthy, trusting only in God's atonement, pleading that God would apply it to him, who is instantaneously made perfect before God, as perfect as God, for the righteousness of God is credited to him. The self-righteous pride of the Pharisee and everybody like him only increases the separation from God.   Atonement is worthless to the self-righteous.

-TALK ABOUT GOING AND SINNING NO MORE

CONCLUSION:

How can a person enter the kingdom of God? It's not by human morality, goodness, or religion, but by repentance and conviction of sin and a plea for an atoning sacrifice.

How can a person enter the kingdom of God? It's not by human morality, goodness, or religion, but by repentance and conviction of sin and a plea for an atoning sacrifice.

How can a person enter the kingdom of God? It's not by human morality, goodness, or religion, but by repentance and conviction of sin and a plea for an atoning sacrifice.

The Lord ends this amazing story in verse 14, "For everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, but he who humbles himself shall be exalted."  “Exalted” here is a synonym for salvation, a synonym for righteousness.  It's used in an Old Testament sense.  In the Old Testament, only God is truly exalted and only God can exalt men.  Men can't exalt themselves successfully to His level.  So this refers to spiritual salvation, reconciliation, righteousness, justification, being in the kingdom. All efforts to doing that on your own are going to leave you humiliated.  Everyone who exalts himself — that is, tries to save himself or make himself righteous — shall be humbled in the severest sense of the word, crushed in eternal loss and punishment.  The path of self-exaltation ends up in eternal judgment.  God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble.

When I wrote the book The Gospel According to Jesus and I rewrote a later edition and a newer edition of it, I wanted to include in that the doctrine of justification.  This is the only place in the teaching of Jesus where you have this explicit instruction.  It is here that the foundations for the teaching of Paul are found.  Christ becomes that sacrifice and it's His death who’s applied... it’s applied to all in the past and all sins.  However, know this, that there is no salvation on this side of the cross apart from recognizing Christ and His work on the cross, for there is no salvation in any other name.

The Lord ends this amazing story in verse 14, "For everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, but he who humbles himself shall be exalted."  “Exalted” here is a synonym for salvation, a synonym for righteousness.  It's used in an Old Testament sense.  In the Old Testament, only God is truly exalted and only God can exalt men.  Men can't exalt themselves successfully to His level.  So this refers to spiritual salvation, reconciliation, righteousness, justification, being in the kingdom. All efforts to doing that on your own are going to leave you humiliated.  Everyone who exalts himself — that is, tries to save himself or make himself righteous — shall be humbled in the severest sense of the word, crushed in eternal loss and punishment.  The path of self-exaltation ends up in eternal judgment.  God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble.

The Lord ends this amazing story in verse 14, "For everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, but he who humbles himself shall be exalted."  “Exalted” here is a synonym for salvation, a synonym for righteousness.  It's used in an Old Testament sense.  In the Old Testament, only God is truly exalted and only God can exalt men.  Men can't exalt themselves successfully to His level.  So this refers to spiritual salvation, reconciliation, righteousness, justification, being in the kingdom. All efforts to doing that on your own are going to leave you humiliated.  Everyone who exalts himself — that is, tries to save himself or make himself righteous — shall be humbled in the severest sense of the word, crushed in eternal loss and punishment.  The path of self-exaltation ends up in eternal judgment.  God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble.

On the other hand, all who humble themselves, confessing they cannot do anything to save themselves, will be lifted high into eternal glory.  The damned think they're good.  The saved know they're wicked.  The damned believe the kingdom of God is for those worthy of it.  The saved know the kingdom of God is for those who know they're unworthy of it.  The damned believe eternal life is earned.  The saved know it's a gift.  The damned seek God's commendation. The saved seek His forgiveness.